Just Plain Pete

  It’s time to start hitting the classroom again for NMSU students, and soon the campus will be aflutter with lost and confused freshmen and experienced, tight-scheduled upperclassmen.  The library will be rustling, the bell will be ringing, the cannon will be booming. 

  And somewhere—perhaps in the Theater Dept. props closet, perhaps in the Pan Am Center behind glass—for safekeeping and posterity, will lie Pistol Pete’s, er, Pete’s pistola.

  Over the weekend, word leaked that the soon-to-be-unveiled logo would feature a pistol-less Pete.  The new logo, drawn up by an artist from Artesia, instead features Pete wielding a lasso.  This raises the question:  should we still call him Pete?

  Pete’s namesake, after all, was a real western gunman from 150 years ago named Frank Eaton.  (How one gets Pete from Frank is another question, and it seems that “Fearless Frank” or “Furious Frank” would be better suited, but several hours of online research confirm that “Pistol Pete,” wasn’t a Pete, but a Frank.)  The story goes like this: Frank’s pappy was shot down by six members of the Regulators, when Frank was just a pup.  By the time he reached 15, he was already a marksman and a sharpshooter.  Still, he moved to Fort Gibson (in the northeastern part of what was then Indian Territory) and joined the cavalry to further improve his shooting skills.  It was in 1881, in a gunfight in Albuquerque, that Frank Eaton (now “Pistol Pete”) killed the last of the six men responsible for his father’s death.

  So again, what is “Pistol Pete” without his pistol?  And why should we continue to call our beloved mascot “Pete?”  I’ve heard the name “Lariat Larry” jestingly suggested.  I think that “Lasso Lou” would be a fine name. 

  In the spring issue of “Panorama,” NMSU’s alumni magazine, its readers were asked if they thought Pistol Pete “should be updated to better reflect NMSU’s traditions and its future.”  In the summer issue, they announced the results.  Sort of.  “Unfortunately, less than one percent of our readers replied, which compromises the survey results.”

  So why the change?  NMSU Athletic Director McKinley Boston told the Associated Press that it wasn’t as much about disarming Pete as it was an effort to put a fresh face on the aging logo. 

  And amidst these recent protests of Aggie purists, one is reminded of the push a couple years ago to update the Aggie fight song.  “And when we win this game/ We’ll buy a keg of booze/ And we’ll drink to the Aggies/ ‘Til be wobble in our shoes.”  The option to change the fight song’s spirited lyrics was put before alumni in 2003.  Apparently, more than one percent responded, striking down the proposition and the lyrics remain as boozy as ever.

  The confiscation of Pete’s “piece” comes on the heels of another round of NCAA scrutiny over Native American oriented mascots.  Perhaps this was a marketing move.  Perhaps it was a preemptive measure to avoid an eminent scandal.  But this controversy has helped to breathe new life into our otherwise lusterless mascot.

-From Pulse
   August 18, 2005